(In the days leading up to hurricane Irma, our portable power supplies have been selling out immediately after each shipment.)

Customer: “Do you have any of those things that are solar powered, or that you charge, and then you can charge your phone from them?”

Me: “Sorry, we’re sold out.”

(I go back to work, but a few minutes later the customer is at the counter, taking to my coworker.)

Customer:*says something I don’t catch* “…and I wanted to show her this, because I asked if you had any and she said you don’t.”

(I see that she is holding a standard wireless charger.)

Me: “Actually, ma’am, that’s not a power bank. The way that works is you plug it into the wall and then you can charge your phone by laying it on top of that, instead of plugging your phone in. It still needs a power source to work.”

Customer: “Oh, thank you. I just wanted to make sure.”

(I think nothing of this until about an hour later when I’m on lunch. I go to the deli to buy a hot meal, and the employee that comes to help stops when she sees me and glares.)

Employee: “What do you want?”

(I order, and while she’s getting my food she starts talking to another employee next to her, loudly.)

Employee: “So, let me tell you about what this cashier just did.”

(The guy next to her just grunts, as he’s helping someone, too.)

Employee: “I sent my mom to go buy a charger for my phone for the storm, and the cashier tried to talk her out of it. She said it wouldn’t work because it’s wireless, but that’s not true.”

Coworker: “Why would they lie?”

Employee: “Well, the only reason I can figure is so they can get it themselves.”

(The guy grunted again, then walked away to weigh his customer’s food. The employee helping me followed him, and continued to complain out of earshot. When she was done, she came back and wordlessly handed my food to me, still glaring. I put on my biggest smile and said thanks. I hope that she doesn’t lose power.)

(My Internet dies one day. I pretty quickly narrow down the issue to the hub provided by our ISP; it’s dead, no lights, nothing. I have to work today, so I ask my grandmother to call up the ISP and ask for a new hub to be sent out. She calls them up and winds up speaking to a call center where, after performing all the routine tests, the “technician” on the other end declares the hub to be dead and says that a new one will be sent out in five working days. Feeling that this isn’t really quick enough, I call up. After going through all the menu options, I get to speak to a “technician.” I fill him in.)

Me: “I really would like to get my Internet service back as soon as possible. I don’t really want to wait five days for the new hub to arrive; is there no way we can do this faster?”

Tech: “No, sir. This is a standard process. It takes five days.”

Me: “There must be a means to get this quicker. I need my Internet; I work from home two days a week.”

Tech: “Let me get the floor manager for you.”

(After a long wait the floor manager comes on the line. I fill him in:)

Me: “…so, as you can see, five days is a long time to wait, and I need the Internet because I work from home two days a week.”

Manager: “Sir, you will just have to go into work.”

Me: “Actually, no. This isn’t possible. I have to be at home these days, and I won’t get paid if I can’t work.”

Manager: “Sir, that’s your problem; you should know an Internet service isn’t reliable.”

Me: “Wait a second… You are telling me that your service, which I pay for every month, is unreliable?”

(He seems to realize what he said.)

Manager: “No, sir. I just mean to say that you can’t guarantee that your Internet will work all the time.”

Me: “Well, there must be some means by which you can get me back online within a day or two.”

Manager: “No, sir. We must follow our process.”

Me: “Okay, great. Then let’s follow your process and cancel my service. I know that [Other Broadband Service] offers to get me online within 24 hours of signing up, so I might as well swap to them until their hub dies and then swap back.”

Manager: “Very well, sir. I will transfer you to the cancellation team.”

(I wound up speaking to the cancellation team, who were not in a call center. They were very apologetic and said that there was totally a means to send me out a hub faster on a next-day delivery scheme. The next day, a hub arrived and I set it up. Three days after that, another delivery came, this time with two hubs. I can only guess that the first one to arrive came from the cancellation team. The second two must have come from the initial call. They must have figured that sending two hubs made up for the slow delivery?)

(There is a popular sushi restaurant five minutes down the street from my home. Every Friday after work I like to treat myself to dinner by ordering delivery. I order the same thing every week: steamed dumplings and a roll. Because the restaurant is so close to my home, the delivery is normally pretty quick, but not so tonight. I place the order, and they give me the regular 30- to 40-minute estimate — normally it comes in 15 — and I start to wait. Forty-five minutes later, I still haven’t received my order, so I call to check the status.)

Me: “Hello. I put in my order about 45 minutes ago and I haven’t received it. Can I check the status?”

Associate:*after checking with coworkers* “Yes, your order is on its way. Sorry for the delay; it has been a busy night.”

(I thank them and settle down again. After about 20 or 30 more minutes, I get antsy and call them back.)

Me: “Hi, my name is [My Name], and I made an order an hour ago. I called a while ago, and they said the order was on its way, but it’s still not here.”

Manager: “I’m sorry. The delivery is on its way. There were a few orders going out, so he is probably delivering those first.”

(At this point I’m a little peeved, but having worked customer service myself, I am sympathetic and don’t mind waiting. However, another 45 minutes pass, and at this point my stomach is rumbling, so I call them back again.)

Me: “Hello. I ordered my food almost two hours ago. I’ve called back multiple times and I’ve been told my food is on its way, but I haven’t received anything. I don’t know if I should just cancel the order?”

Manager: “I’m so sorry to hear that. I will contact the driver to see where he’s at and call you back.”

Me: “Okay.”

(I wait maybe five minutes with no call back, so I call the restaurant. Suddenly, the manager is not available. I’m deciding between going to the restaurant to pick up the food or just cancelling altogether when I finally get a call back.)

Manager: “I spoke to the driver and the food is delivered.”

Me: “I’m sorry. I do not have my order. No one has come by here all night.”

(At this point, I even check my front step to see if the driver just left it without knocking, but nothing is there.)

Manager: “Okay. I will see what happened.”

(Thankfully, at this point I get an almost immediate call back.)

Manager: “I am so sorry. He delivered it to the wrong house. We will make sure to get you your food right away!”

Me: “Thank you.”

(At this point I decided to just stick with it. I was super hungry, but I expected that they’d try to get my food out as quick as possible. However, only five minutes later, my doorbell rang. I thought this was way too fast but assumed that they were speeding to “please the customer.” I paid the delivery guy, tipped him the normal amount despite the fact that it had been over two hours since I made my order, and got ready to dig in. I opened the container and, to my horror, saw that the food was partially eaten and picked through! Instead of remaking my order, the delivery man went to the wrong address, got the food back from them, and delivered it! Grossed out, I had finally had enough. I re-packaged the food and drove down to the restaurant. I asked for the manager and showed him the partially-eaten food. He didn’t even apologize. If anything, he seemed annoyed that he had to continue dealing with me. He remade the food and gave me the new batch. I’m not normally one to feel entitled, but I was surprised he didn’t even offer to reimburse the delivery charge or give me a free appetizer. That was my first bad experience with that location, but I assume they must have been under new management, because it was the start of many experiences of bad service. I haven’t eaten there in years now.)

(We have just opened a new branch library to which I’ve been assigned. Rather than furnish it nicely, our director has been obsessed with reusing old furniture. One of these pieces is a book return box that is so rusty we can barely open it. It also does not yet have a basket inside, so the return box is literally that: a box shell over the concrete parking lot. Anything returned inside drops straight to the pavement.)

Me: “Do you think we should put an ‘Out of Order’ sign on the book drop or something, so people don’t return things there until we get a basket inside it?”

Director: “Why would we want to do that?”

Me: “Well, we can’t really open it to get anything out, so people will think they’re returning stuff on time, but it might take us days before maintenance can pry it open.”

Director:*shrugs* “We’ll just back-date everything a week, then.”

Me: “Plus, items just crash onto the concrete. Movies are going to get broken.”

Director: “I guess that’s less inventory we have to deal with.”

(I just quietly walked away so I wouldn’t say anything that would get me fired. This director doesn’t care about the taxpayer dollars that bought those movies, nor does she care about keeping inventory well stocked, yet she’s petitioning the community for a million-dollar levy. Also, at the time of writing this, one of our patrons told us she returned movies in our dropbox, and she wants them removed from her card so she doesn’t get any fines. And we can’t get the rusty drop box open to do so.)